Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) systems are designed to recreate the high quality communications that is typically supplied in wired networks that use standard LAN protocols such as Ethernet. High quality communications include uninterrupted network connections, high throughput and reliable delivery of data. However maintaining such high quality communications in a WLAN is more difficult than in a wired network. The range and speed of wireless communications is often limited by, for example, interference and power limitations. Maintaining a high quality communications in a WLAN therefore requires vigilant attention to error detection and correction and also requires careful monitoring of the conditions of the wireless link.
Despite their limitations, WLANs are frequently preferred over wired LANs, primarily because the user terminals of a WLAN are portable. Such portability makes possible Wireless Vehicle Area Networks (WVANs) and many Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). However WLANs are also popular for other reasons. For example, with WLANs it is easy to use “ad hoc” networks that can be quickly assembled and torn down, and WLANs also may be more economical when compared with the high cost of infrastructure wiring.
Because of these advantages, WLANs are a preferred type of system for implementation in a wide urban area, such as a metropolitan city. In such a setting, implementing a WLAN in an efficient manner requires considering a number of factors. For example, how many coverage access points are needed to cover the urban area, how many frequencies are needed for the capacity of the system, and how is the wireless backhaul implemented? The overall objective of implementing the WLAN system is to reduce system cost by minimizing the number of access points and the number of network connections required for providing the coverage access points connection to a wired network (generally known as “backhaul”). Considering the size of an urban area, such as a metropolitan city, having to take into consideration all of these factors is a difficult, time consuming, and computationally intensive task. Accordingly, there exists a need for a method and apparatus for site, frequency, and backhaul planning of access points.
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